Wall Street's main indexes were flat on Wednesday, taking a breather after a month-long rally and as US Treasury yields rose as a bill to cut $1.5 trillion in taxes progressed toward the finish line. The Republican-controlled US House of Representatives gave final approval to a sweeping tax bill which will be the largest overhaul of the US tax code in 30 years. The Senate has already voted in favor of the bill.
The proposed changes include cutting the corporate tax rate to 21 percent from 35 percent from January 1, which could boost company earnings and pave the way for higher dividends and stock buybacks. The S&P 500 has climbed about 4.7 percent since mid-November when the House passed the bill, led by a rally in sectors such as transport, banks and others that are expected to benefit the most from lower taxes.
Some market analysts say the market has already priced in the approval of the tax bill. "We rallied a lot on sort of a non-event and there is a little bit of head scratching about what's really new that we should be rallying on," said JJ Kinahan, chief market strategist at TD Ameritrade in Chicago.
At 12:27 pm ET (1727 GMT), the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 13.27 points, or 0.05 percent, at 24,768.02 and the S&P 500 was up 0.64 points, or 0.02 percent, at 2,682.11. The Nasdaq Composite was down 1.84 points, or 0.03 percent, at 6,962.01.
Seven of the 11 major S&P sectors were higher, led by a 1.2 percent rise in telecoms, considered by some analysts to be the biggest beneficiary of lower taxes. AT&T gained 1.9 percent and Verizon 0.5 percent.
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